The 4 Stages

I seem to have 4 distinct stages of food and exercise behaviour in my life life:

STAGE 1. I eat copious amounts of junk food and I don’t exercise

STAGE 2. I eat well and I exercise at least 4 times a week

STAGE 3. I eat well but I don’t exercise

STAGE 4. I eat poorly but I keep exercising

Obviously stage 2 is the optimal stage to be at when trying to lose weight, but it is very hard to maintain the momentum when I much prefer to eat out at restaurants, drink with friends and sit on the couch eating chocolate.

I am currently in stage 4, I am doing well with my exercise and actually enjoying it for once (shocking). I am just not very focussed with my eating and I am letting bigger potions and too many snacks creep in. I think I am living fairly normally and I can easily maintain my weight this way, but I know I won’t lose weight until I cut out those delicious sugary snacks and my wine time on the weekends.

Sometimes I just get so sick of having to think so much about what I eat. Does this have enough fibre? Does this have protein? Is this low carb? Sometimes it’s nice just to eat like a normal person and eat something because it is tasty and not because of the nutritional content.

I must admit that I don’t care about my weight right now as much as I feel I should. I know I need to lose another 10 kilos and it would be good to get that done sooner rather than later, but I just figure that I’ll do it when I am ready. It’s too hard to feel deprived all the time, especially in winter when food becomes all about comfort and warmth (there is nothing comforting about salad)!

I just need to stop making muffins like these and make more muffins like these. My adapted recipe for the healthy muffins is below. These were delicious right out of the oven with a cup of tea. I guess nothing is that healthy though when you eat 4 serves of them though… whoops.

I am about to eat one right now for afternoon tea...

Banana, Pecan and Rolled Oat Muffins

Ingredients*

• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 and ½ cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of desiccated coconut
• 1/2 cup of honey
• 1 cup of chopped pecans
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup full fat natural yoghurt
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 3 bananas, mashed**

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper cases and spray paper cases with spray oil to make sure muffins don’t stick.
2. Sift flour, cinnamon and soda into a bowl. Add the oats, coconut, pecans and brown sugar, and stir to combine.
3. Whisk eggs, yoghurt, honey and oil together. Add mashed banana and stir to combine. Pour into dry ingredients and mix together using a wooden spoon until just combined. Mixture may be lumpy and does not have to be evenly mixed.
4. Spoon mixture into paper cases. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

* Disclaimer: I am not much into measuring quantities and just throw in what looks right, so the measurements could be slightly off…

** I bought 4 bananas and it cost me $11, fark, I forgot about the banana shortage!